There was once a man who didn't believe in God, and he didn't hesitate
to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays.

His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also
have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments.

One snowy Eve, his wife was taking their children to service in the farm
community in which they lived.
They were to talk about Jesus' birth. She asked him to come, but he refused.

"That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would
God lower Himself
to come to Earth as a man? That's ridiculous!"

So she and the children left, and he stayed home.

A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard.
As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding
snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then
he heard a loud
thump.

Something had hit the window.

He looked out, but couldn't see more
than a few feet.
When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside to see what
could have been beating on his window.

In the field near his house he saw a flock of
wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when
they got caught in the snowstorm and couldn't go on. They were
lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their
wings and flew
around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. A couple
of them had flown into his window, it seemed.

The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be
a great place for them
to stay, he thought. It's warm and safe; surely they could spend the
night and wait out the storm.
So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched
and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside.

But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and didn't seem to notice the
barn or realize what it could mean for them.

The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them,
and they moved further away.
He went into the house and came with some bread, broke it up,
and made a bread crumb trail leading to the barn. They still
didn't catch on.

Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward
the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction
except toward the barn.
Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be
warm and safe.

"Why don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed. "Can't
they see
this is the only place where they can survive the storm?"

He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn't
follow a human. "If
only I were a goose, then I could save them," he said out loud.

Then he had an idea. He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and
carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock
of wild geese.

He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into
the barn -- and one-by-one, the other geese followed it to safety.

He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken
a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind: "If only I were a goose, then I could save
them!" Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. "Why
would God want to be like us? That's ridiculous!"

Suddenly, it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese--blind,
lost, perishing.
God had His Son to become like us so
He could show us the way and save us.

As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet and pondered
this wonderful thought.
Suddenly, he understood why Christ had come.
Years of doubt and disbelief vanished with the passing storm. He fell
to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first prayer:

"Thank You, God, for coming in human form to get me out
of the storm!"